Thursday, January 19, 2017

Florida gator reminds tourists who's boss by jumping onto their boat

As Floridians will tell you, a seemingly happy gator sunning itself on a swamp bank will still try to take a little bite out of unsuspecting passerby, no matter how placid it looks. A Missouri couple learned that during their trip to the Sunshine State, according to TV news station KY3, after a gator jumped onto their tour boat during a trip through the wetlands.

Tylor Hindery was recording his trip with his wife on Facebook Live when they spotted the resting 8-foot-long reptile. Their tour guide says he's going to have to "ease down and push my way off of this bank to get away from this dude."

The guide can be heard asking Hindery in the video, "Can you reach out and slap him, can't you?" Hindery says, "If I wanted to, yeah."

Apparently, the gator did not take too kindly to that last statement because seconds later it lunges into the boat and gets stuck in the railing. After some thrashing from the gator and screams from the humans on the boat, the animal manages to slip back into the murky waters.

KY3 reports no one on the boat was hurt, though Hindery says, "My sister was watching it live and she said that she thought she was watching the end."